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Wide chasm of Japanese media (hype) and realities

Tomioka, Fukushima, Japan, April 7, 2024—As years wore on since the March 2011 earthquake-tsunami-nuclear meltdown disaster, the area around the Fukushima nuclear power station looks tidy and clean, devoid of once-ubiquitous mounds of black plastic bags containing radioactive waster, as the sound of business and consumer activities echo in this small town.

The Japanese government on Nov. 30, 2023 lifted the evacuation and entry ban on what was the remaining zones of Tomioka town that had been cordoned off strictly for high levels of radiation from the nuclear power station. Residents were allowed to return to their homes and people visit the zones freely.

Japanese news reports showed video clips of flower buds of cherry trees that line more than a mile of the town’s main street, Tomioka’s famous tourist attraction. A town YouTube page gave a tour of renovated houses for trial stay for out-of-towners interested in moving to the town. Another town YouTube clip showed school children receiving a pair of baseball gloves donated by L.A. Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani from the school master, then playing catch ball.

An abundance of nature, and comfy, affordable living are what those images try to exude to residents that still are evacuating in other areas of Japan and out-of-towners to move into Tomioka, the town that lost nearly 95 percent of pre-disaster population – and still not bouncing back.

Decreasing fish catches

A fisherman and his wife were scrubbing the hull of their 4-year-old fishing boat ashore the Yuriage fisheries harbor, about 50 kilometers north of Tomioka. It was lunchtime and they were munching on ‘onigiri’ rice balls – instead of sashimi raw fish they used to catch in abundance while at sea. That was before the 2011 earthquake-tsunami-nuclear power meltdown disaster. Their life changed dramatically after the great trembler.

The fisherman, who looked to be in his 60s, told me: ‘Everything changed after the earthquake: Fish catch has plummeted. Now I can barely make ends meet doing this that I have inherited from my parents, grandparents and grand-grandparents.’ He thinks his predecessors had been fishing in Yuriage for hundreds of years. 

He had to have his Seiryo-maru’ fishing boat newly built because its predecessor was irreversibly damaged by the March 2011 tsunami. He is still paying for the new ship that he bought for close to half a million dollars. If he is to build the same boat now, the cost would be three times, he said. 

By regulations of the fisheries gilt he belongs to (a mandate for all fishermen in his area), he can set off to sea only 3 to 4 days a week and the variety fish he can catch is strictly limited. So on a typical day, his catch per cruise is barely a large fishery bucket-full. He is not allowed to sell his catch directly to consumers and local grocers. Instead he takes the bucket to the market in the harbor to be auctioned off by the local fisheries gilt. ‘I have become a salaried worker at sea,’ he lamented wryly.

Tourists are back

Half a mile away from his harbor is the Yuriage Minato (harbor) Asaichi (morning market), its more than 50 tiny shops and restaurants bustling with tourists scurrying about the alleys for local goodies. The market holds twice-weekly bidding auctions for fish to vegetables participated by visitors.

About a mile inland, a similar eat-in and shopping mall, Kawaterasu Yuriage, competes with the Yuriage Minato Asaichi for customers. Both places seem to be drawing increasing numbers of customers despite the COVID pandemic.

The scene challenges the fisherman’s somber mumbling, raising questions as to what he told me was an isolated case and the tsunami-radiation-affected 500 kilo coastal line is drawing residents back. One plausible explanation for the two places’ vibrancy is that Japan is currently in the midst of an unprecedented tourism boom. In 2023, 25 million foreign tourists visited Japan, a 6.5 time surge, though the figure still was below the pre-Covid pandemic level of 32.8 million. Japanese people also are traveling to domestic destinations at a much faster pace than a few years ago. By 2030, foreign visitors are projected to grow to 60 million.

Rural areas

Visit to rural areas of Fukushima show different pictures from the briskness of tourist spots. Iidate village, which was reopened to residents and visitors in 2017, shows little sign of residents coming back after generous subsidies for home repairs and farming had been phased down over years. The village has 1,500 registered residents as of April 1, 2024, which seems to be peak population and decreasing gradually for months corresponding to population aging and small child births.

In Iidate, many houses along major roads look new or freshly painted. Eerie quietness prevails over those houses as there are hardly any parked cars, the only means of moving, and no barking of dogs or people’s conversations.

A middle-aged lady caretaker of Yamatsumi Shrine, the village’s popular tourist spot, said the number of visitors to the shrine with rare paintings of dozens of foxes on its ceilings has been limited. ‘The reason why some visitors come to this place is that television stations showed the fox paintings on the ceiling,’ she said.

Will the foxes beckon residents that still are evacuating in other places and tourists back to this village that has hardly any tourist attractions, tasty food or temples and shrines except Yamatsumi Shrine? One thing the village has to offer: total serenity, the great nature, and nothingness.

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Japan’s tourism bubble ripples; 2030 target of 60 mln likely be breached

TOKYO, March 21, 2024—Japan’s target of drawing 60 million foreign tourists by 2030 may be advanced earlier as travelers flocked to popular destinations at a maddening pace in February 2024, totaling 2.788 million, a 7.1 percent rise over 2019, the year before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country, the Japanese government tourist agency JNTO reported March 19.

The number marked the largest single monthly figurer post-Covid and a record for any month of February. Especially surprising, travel agent officials said, was that travelers braved the coldest month of year. This suggested that the March number is set to be even bigger, possibly breaching 3 million, they said.

By country, Korea totaled 818,500, up 14.3 percent over February 2019; Taiwan 592,200, up 25.6%; China 459,400, down 36.5%; Hong Kong 205,900, up 14.8%, and the United States 148,700, up 60.5%. The Philippines totaled 65,200, up 85.4%, Malaysia 60,200, up 64.2%, Vietnam 60,100, up 52.6% – all of them record highs.

Compared with February 2023, Korean visitors registered a 43.9 percent increase; China 1,166 percent; Taiwan 102 percent; Hong Kong 72.4 percent; the United States 71.0 percent. There was no country that showed year-on-year decrease.

In March and April, numbers are projected to increase 10-20 percent, driving the 2024 total set to easily topping 30 million.

A Brooklyn, New York resident told The Prospect that ‘many’ of his friends are booking to visit Japan this spring onward for a few weeks of visit, and a journalist based in San Francisco said he and his wife plan traveling Tokyo, Mt. Fuji, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka areas for about two weeks. They reserved the Imperial and other top hotels, as well as luxury restaurants.

Floods of visitors already are a nightmare for Kyoto residents as their rents are soaring through the roof in response to gluts of foreign investments in the city’s properties. Public transportation, including buses, are packed with suitcase-carrying tourists, inconveniencing locals to get around for shopping and other errands, Kyoto residents complained, on top of spiraling prices of everything.

Kyoto now is mulling two-tier prices, one for locals and other for out-of-towners.

The ‘tourist pollution’ caused by over-tourism is threatening to spill over to other places, such as snow-covered Gokayama in Gifu Prefecture and Morioka in northern Japan. They are booking ‘business hotels,’ which are cheap accommodations for Japanese workers on assignment. Their travel expenses are limited and most opt to stay at those hotels giving them a tiny space for a bed to sleep for $40-50. Now, prices are set to double, going beyond their stipend. City hotel rates already have more than doubled and their restaurants also doubled prices compared with two years ago. Service prices as a whole have climbed at least 100 percent over two years ago.

In 2025, Osaka will host the Osaka Expo 2025, with the organizers projecting to attract 3.5 million foreign visitors.

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BOJ’s Ueda isn’t the only central banker succumbed to political pressure

TOKYO, March 21, 2024—On a cold February evening, Japan’s most prestigious private club was quiet as usual as a few small groups of mostly ex-Japaneses bureaucrats sat cozily in the bar chairs sipping cocktails and discussing global politics and economy almost inaudibly. Kazuo Ueda walked in to the premises flanked by his board members and instead of going to the bar, he was hastily ushered into a private dining room. Those accompanying him did not want people to come close to Ueda, let alone chat with him.

Ueda is not alone. He was joined by Federal Research chairman Jerome Powell on March 20, 2024.

Before he became the Bank of Japan governor, reportedly on his own will, on April 9, 2023, 72-year-old Ueda was known as a frequent visitor to Tokyo’s Ginza and Roppongi night life districts. After his 5-year central banker term began, he has been surrounded by dark-suited vice governors and advisors instead of night club hostesses.

Ueda announced on March 19, 2024 that the Japanese central bank was ending its negative short-term interest monetary policy for the first time since the bank took the policy in April 2013 as a means of shoring up the Japanese economy from deflation.

Over the intervening years, that translated into a weak yen against the U.S. dollar, euro and other currencies, and the impact has has been showing up in crawling goods prices, un-visible to casual eyes. After the Covid-19 pandemic erupted in 2020, the bank further relaxed monetary policy whole the government pumped trillions of yen to businesses in distress. And in 2023, businesses began raising wages by a few percentage points, and in 2024 doubled what they raised in 2023. By headline anecdotes, Japan’s consumer prices nearly doubled over the pst two years.

Compounding the price pressure, a massive influx of foreign tourists filled up hotels, restaurants, and other tourist spots, and the CPI upward trend gained impetus.Businesses and consumers say that Japan has entered a new round of inflation.

Against this backdrop, Ueda on March 19 made the announcement to to end the negative rate policy but he emphasized that the bank’s next policy move depends on whether CPI will continue above 2 percent sustainably and dismissed further tightening. Why is he so adamant about refusing to tighten further when taxpayers are complaining about rising goods and service prices? Ueda the scholar is surrounded by bureaucrats who prioritize inflation over price stability partly because a more visible interest rate rise requires additional issuance of Japanese government bonds. A one percent rate rise demands about 40 trillion yen (266 billion) fresh JGB issuance.

It’s the pressure Ueda is feeling from the Japanese bureaucracy, and on top of it, pressure from politicians to help sustain the spiraling stock market surge that rely on campaign finances and other forms of political money from big businesses at a time when the ruling party of prime minister kishida is being rocked by financial scandals and he may call for a general election.

It’s a similar election-related political pressure Fed Chairman Powell is feeling now, the reason why he said about three rate cuts this year. Political pressure is that powerful now that central bank independence is being eroded, almost replaced by policy to accommodate money rolling machines.

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Japan’s 2023 newspaper circulations halved from 2020 as more challenges await

TOKYO, March 14, 2024—In January 2024, a newspaper publisher specializing in covering newspaper industry printing marketing and technology went bankrupt quietly. Its circulations of two top papers had been decreasing over years to the level where the company no longer could not continue paying for newsprint, ink and printing machines. There’s more than what the demise of Japan Printing News Co., Ltd. underneath.

Catering to the newspaper industry’s newsprint marketing and technical divisions, this small company founded in 1950 at one time was in hot demand for its papers that reported on printing technologies, industry trends and other industry insider topics. It began experiencing a steady slide in circulation after the newspaper industry’s circulation peaked around 2000, with the shrinking condition accelerating from around 2000 – in close lockstep with the newspaper industry.

The failure was no isolated incident for daily national newspapers. Proof of the industry’s plight, total daily newspaper circulations plummeted to almost half from 53.708 million in 2000 to 28.590 million copies in 2023, and down 2.256 million copies or 7.3 percent – a record year-to-year decrease – from 2022, according to the Japan Newspaper Publishers Association’s statistics on Dec. 26, 2023. Per household circulation was 0.49 and circulation per 1,000 people was 270, down 28 copies from 2022.

Still, the data looked impressive for a country with the population roughly 1/3rd of the United States when compared to less than 20 million copies of daily newspapers read by U.S. audience, an estimate based on a Pew Research data. Comparison analysis aside, the Japanese circulation fall looked dead serious in absolute terms as electronic subscriptions are farm from sparkling in Japan, with the Nikkei economic daily’s totaling not even 1 million.

The 2023 circulation plunge occurred a year before the so-called 2024 newspaper industry crisis is set to grip it: The renewal of existing newsprint printing machines that have almost reached their end-of-life and forcing even national dailies to consider business strategies to avoid huge investments for new machines, such as going on-line alone, sharing printing presses with rivals, or mergers.

If ever, the primary reason why national dailies have been able to continue printing independently owed something unique only to Japanese newspapers: The legal mandate to deliver daily newspaper copies to all subscribers no matter how far and difficult to reach their homes even in fowl weather on a same day basis. This forced newspapers to run their own printing presses, transport the printed papers as fast as possible on their respective delivery trucks, and finally deliver the papers to each house, in competition with rival newspapers.

But that requirement is registering wear as the industry experiences tumbling ad revenues on top of crashing circulations. In 2000, ad revenues aggregated 1.247 trillion yen ($8.3 billion). In 2021, it was 381 billion yen ($2.5 billion). What’s that drop? Much of the decrease went to Internet ads.

Readership migration to smart phones and PCs to read free (and subscription fee paying) news articles is one of the factors contributing to the newspaper readership shrinkage, for sure.

But I find that fundamental reasons are lurking in content. When I flip through newspapers – Yomiuri, which boasts the largest circulation, Asahi, the second, Nikkei, the economic daily, and sometimes others, I used to feel overwhelmed by rich content – stories about politicians, bureaucrats, financial and monetary policies, new tech developments, and so on, plus overseas news researched and written nobly by staff correspondents. I would have to spend at least a couple of hours to go through them all.

What now? I scan at headlines and flip through pages perhaps in 10 minutes per paper. On March 13, 2024, all newspapers headlined articles about a failed rocket launch of the Japanese spapce company, Space One. It was very shallow to me, very little about launch technology and other details. It must have been only 20 minutes before I tossed the three papers onto the table.

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Goldman’s withdrawal from Japan banking services a precursor?

TOKYO, March 9, 2924—Goldman Sachs is closing down its Japanese banking operations, effective April 15, 2024, Bloomberg News reported March 8. Will it be a precursor to scaling back or pulling out of investment banking and other Japanese businesses is unclear.

Goldman Sachs Bank USA Tokyo Branch issued notice on the transaction banking services closing to its clients on Feb. 29, Bloomberg said. Goldman obtained its banking license in 2021, and in April 2023 it said it would offer payment and settlement, domestic/cross-border remittance services.

In Japan, wholesale banking services are by tradition performed with so-called ‘main bank’ financial institutions, making new entry extremely difficult no matter how competent a bank may be.

Goldman commenced transaction banking in the United States in 2020 and later expanded operations in the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and other markets, Bloomberg said. The Japanese banking operation was to become Goldman’s first Asian banking footholds, it said. It was not clear whether Goldman would start offering banking services in other Asian markets.

Goldman is widely known to continue hanging on to its Japanese invest banking and securities businesses. Yet, even though the Japanese stock market is breaching new highs in recent weeks, there was little indications that Goldman would expand non-transaction banking operations. In November 2023, media reports said Goldman Japan president Masanori Mochida, who worked for Goldman for 38 years, had decided to retire at the end of 2023.

In an incongruous news story, the financial daily Nikkei newspaper Nov. 29, 2023 reported an interview article of Goldman’s global head of asset and wealth management Mark Nachman as saying that he plans to increase investment in Japanese companies and the property market with its investment banking division. 

Nachman said his division would increase private equity investment in Japan, citing as an example of his resolve the privatization of the road-pavement leader Nippo jointly with ENEOS energy company group.

So, Goldman’s transaction banking business closing looks to be a deviation from its long-term business strategy in Japan, but it nevertheless is something one should not keep an eye off because the current ‘Japan boom’ is bed almost solely by the weak yen and the incidental stock market surge.

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Japan begins shedding statehood dangerously toward centralized administration

TOKYO, March 4 2024—More than three decades after the Diet (Japanese parliament) unanimously adopted a resolution to promote decentralization of government, thus gradually empowering municipalities the regional authority to share administration with the national government, the tide is dangerously flowing back. And the shift is bringing about changes in public administration, some dramatically, by the central and local governments, making American debate about federalism and states’ statehood looking more democratic and healthy.

Perhaps the most hyperbolic case is the Japanese supreme court decision Dec. 20, 2023 on the Okinawa prefecture vs. the Japanese government on the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corp. Futenma Airbase to Henoko shore. Okinawa had refused to authorize Henoko shore reclamation work for environmental degradation, irreversible damage to corral habitation and other reasons. The high court ruled that Okinawa is obligated to authorize work and gave the central government to directly perform work instead. In an earlier local referendum, Okinawa voters voted down the central government’s request.

The court decision and the Japanese government’s hardball approach toward Okinawa were not isolated from other policies Tokyo had been taking during the reins of the late prime minister Shinzo Abe, particularly since 2020, when Japan was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic as it struggled to ask all 125 million citizens to obtain the ‘My Number’ taxpayer ID card.

The ‘move toward centralization of power as a countermeasure against the coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020 has intensified, resulting in discrepancies in policy measures and confrontation between the national government and local governments,’ Kunihiko Ushiyama, professor of the school of political science and economics of Meiji University, wrote on Oct. 25, 2023.

Centralization of government administration to the national government, which can be interpreted as a simplistic form of U.S. federalism, has a long suffocating period in Japanese history.

During much the 270-year-long Edo period through the mid-1800s, the country’s administration had basically functioned on local ‘Han (samurai war lord domain)’ statehood The Tokugawa Shogunate commanded supreme authority over other ‘Daimyo (domain lords),’ the shogun’s power was superlative, his administrative policies weighing on what top Daimyos had to think and decide at a ‘Roju (senior baron and chamberlain’ conferences, and thus he could not make his own decisions.

Those Daimyos came from many regions of Japan, all of them maintaining high levels of autonomy from the Tokugawa Shogunate. Thus, by mid-Edo period, the Shogun had been made a figurehead, stripped of all important duties, his daily life, including his night life with wife and mistresses in the (O-oku (the Shogun harem), and what he ate, fixed rigidly by chamberlains. No freedom and little power. He was not permitted to eat a piping hot grilled ‘sanma (weak sword fish, the variety that only poor people consumed then),’ given only after his aides sample the delicious warm fish for poison.

The long statehood period ended come the Meiji Restoration period (1868-1912), when the Tokugawa Shogunate was toppled by the new government force (called the ‘Kangun’) that introduced Japan’s first constitution, the Great Nippon Imperial Constitution) in 1889, that articulated the centuries-long ambiguity of national-state administrative authority to the central government by elucidating that the emperor assumes sovereignty of the nation (Article 1). This policy had been observed rigidly until 1945, the year when Japan officially surrendered to the U.S.-led occupation forces. In 1946, the current Constitution was enforced that accorded sovereignty to the Japanese people (Article 92) and government administration is entrusted to their representatives by the people, as well as that local entities shall make own decisions on organizations and administration (Article 93).

In fits and starts, the decentralization movement had spread in municipalities, finally culminating with the 2006 enactment of the Regional Administrative Authority Promotion Act and its enforcement in 2007. But contrary to what many local had hoped were for reactivating the then-already sliding local communities, the act turned out to be primarily for merging shrinking villages and towns under new, deceptively bright names like ‘green town’ or telling such consolidated municipalities to advertise their they now have clinics, hot springs, and other facilities – which the merged entities acquired from the acquired halves).

Decentralization should give local communities greater statehood and autonomy at administration, including taxes for ultimate empowerment in policy and action. What the decentralization led to after the law was introduced was local governments were given ‘passive freedom’ of administering policies on their own though passively, instead of being instructed by the statement.That’s far different from ‘positive freedom’ in which local governments explore something new on their own. In other words, local governments were asked to find solutions to problems they encounter without looking up to government for help – which is an impossibly tall wall for many that have been accustomed to following government instructions.

The top court ruling on the Futenma Airbase relocation may not be a good case to cite as an example of what will happen next in the re-centralization wave. But having coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, in which the national government took a decisively powerful role by shoving aside local governments in vaccine distribution and numerous other policies, it’s a lead nevertheless that the bureaucracy, the prime minister’s cabinet and politicians can follow in their pursuit to re-muster power and authority in many other areas. 

The timing can be right for them as most of those policies, including the My Number card, subsidies, taxes and others will be connected via the government’s DX digitalization economy, societal platform, a highly complicated program that overwhelms lay people’s understanding.

So, at the end of the day, many Japanese do not feel comfortable about the ‘positive freedom’ drift and elect to entrust decisions to the ‘Okami (higher-up, government, politicians, God).’

Dangerous.

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Japanese, emphasizing sunny sides, arbitrarily search for shadows

TOKYO, Feb. 27, 2024—Until several years ago, it was unimaginable for locals of this once world-class shipbuilding city of Sasebo, Kyushu that these narrow alleys, which were dug as World War II period air raid shelters, would continue existing other than for storage. It did to the contrary to thrive as a watering holes and retailers for visitors searching for ‘hiding places,’ or hypothetical shadows from the day-to-day life focused on the sunny side.

The bar ‘Tough’ on the Tunnel Alley, one of the narrow strips dug under a hard-rock hill, is busy with visitors looking for experiences of war-time life in shelter. ‘Yonken-me Shokudo (4th restaurant) is another, long, bowling alley-like eatery. The ceiling of both outlets are so low that visitors would have to lower their bodies to get in.

But no matter the inconvenience and tight space, visitors seem to find comfort in the window-less places where no sunlight filters. Or they look as if they quest for darkness and shadows, like Simon & Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence. And visitors are not only from Japan but other countries too.

For much of the post-war period dark and shadowy places were everywhere in Japan, perhaps the reason why people vied for brightness to escape sorrow, sadness, and hardships they experienced. Rooms were lit sparingly, streets were dark with few street lights, and by 8:00 p.m., restaurants and retail stores were closed, except the glitzy Ginza, the place for successful entrepreneurs, and Akasaka, the geisha district for politicians and supporters. Even the now-famous and infamous Shinjuku Kabuki-cho entertainment district’s streets were dark and gloomy.

But it’s no more. Every dark side in Japan was turned up and exposed to brightness. It’s probably is the reason why people are searching for ‘men’s hiding places,’ which typically are bars and restaurants that one wants to keep secret, or go on a solo camping trip in outback mountains.

Yet many cannot resist posting activities on social network services.

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Excessive regs choke off Japan’s growth and send her to 4th in GDP terms

TOKYO, Feb. 16, 2024—Two examples of excessive Japanese government red tape surfaced recently, underscoring why regulations are choking off growth and nudging the country down the global GDP slope to fourth in 2023, and most likely even lower over the coming years.

On Jan. 19, 2024, a government advisory panel handed a final draft report on a security clearance system to be implemented from next year. Highlighting the report is a cobweb of definitions of what constitutes classified information owned and handled by private entities and individuals, and penalties to be leveled against violations. The drafted system would be administered by amending the Law of Specific Secret Protection.

The system was drafted to prevent hi-tech research R&D and sensitive information leakage to China, Russia, North Korea and other countries deemed as hostile to Japan, such as joint R&D with U.S. and European entities for next-gen semiconductors, as well as power grid and other social infrastructure.

In actual enforcement, the system demands that private entities and individuals disclose all classified information to and seek authorization of the government as to the level of disclosure and sharing of such information with business partners in joint R&D research and development. 

Those engaged in handling confidential information can do an R&D project, for example, up to 10 years, and information leakage to third parties that occurred during the period will be subject to 5 year prison terms plus 5 million yen ($35,000) fine.

This is enough to make R&D lab researchers to squirm and shrink, affecting their ambitions to develop novel ideas and technologies in consultation with other researchers, analysts said.

(Details at: https://www.cas.go.jp/jp/seisaku/keizai_anzen_hosyo_sc/pdf/torimatome.pdf)

No truck stopping

The Japanese government separately is in the process of amending the Distribution Efficiency and Optimization Law and Freight Motor Vehicle Transport Business Law, probably for enforcement in 2025, requiring logistics businesses to submit reports on improving truck freight work. Failure to submit reports and show actual improvements will be subject to government corrective orders.

What this means for big-rig drivers is that they will be banned from driving more than fixed numbers of hours a week or month. On the road, they cannot sleep in the trucks they drive at truck stops because it would be counted as part of drive hours, or killing time at expressway service areas.
On January 26, 2024, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport issued a remedy recommendation to a cargo consigning company and two freight companies to correct long stand-by time for their trucks.

The two regulatory changes would further lower Japanese companies’ productivity, which has been on a steady decent for years, as they need to spend more time at compliance with the regulations, analysts said.

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Watch for 3rd wave of inflation in 2024 spring

TOKYO, Feb. 13, 2024—In Niseko, an international ski reosrt buried deep in snow in the frigid large island of Hokkaido, a bow of crab ramen goes for 3,800 yen ($30), and in the Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai alley adjacent to the fish wholesale market, an uni-ikura (sea urchin and salmon eggs) rice bowl deliciously is presented for 18,000 yen ($120). Niseko and Toyosu visitors from overseas are flocking to the restaurants exclaiming something like: ‘Those are cheap, steal prices!’

A Japanese tourist to the alley that had a grand opening on Feb. 1, 2024 were intimidated and opted for a 4,400 yen ($29) uni-maguro (tuna) bowl, the lunch cost four times his weekday meals near his workplace.

Those tourist prices that for the average Japanese are for special occasions quietly and quite rapidly are seeping into local Japanese eateries and groceries. ‘Restaurant prices are soaring and quality and quantities are on the inverse curve,’ lamented one Mr. Suzuki Feb. 12.

Undeniably, torrents of tourists from the world over to popular destinations like Kyoto, where Mr. Suzuki lives, are a key factor behind spiraling prices as the demand-supply equation is strained. In 2023, a total of 25 million tourists visited Japan, up from 3.8 million in 2022, according to Japanese government data. The Japanese government has a target to increase the number to more than 60 million by 2030.

The growth curve is showing no sign of letup despite fewer Chinese tourists during the current Chinese new year because of the flagging Chinese economy. Increasing arrivals are from Asia, Europe, South America and almost every part of the world now. In addition to traditionally popular destinations, including Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and other urban areas, tourists are arriving in smaller cities and even villages.

What those foreign tourists experience are refreshing to them but since supply is limited for food, services and accommodations at the time of growing labor shortages in Japan, prices inevitably are going up. Niseko may be an exception as a powder snow ski resort having been known over the past few decades, but visitors are finding new pleasures at dipping in onsen hot springs while watching the snowfall and sheer tranquility of the nature, or climbing mountains and walking old trails.

Had it not been for other factors, that should have been a welcome development: A confluence of the Bank of Japan’s prolonged negative interest rate policy, the yen’s steep slide against the U.S. dollar and other key currencies, widening labor shortages, and the end of Covid restrictions ignited pent-up demand for not only traveling in Japan, by both foreign and domestic tourists, but also for practically any other things.

In short, everything is going up in Japan yet again, making spiraling prices a third wave of inflation. That’s what the Tokyo stock market started mirroring recently, surging for almost unknown reasons.

Will the BOJ, supposedly, the guardians of price stability, intervene and tighten monetary policy? It’s highly questionable for reasons The Prospect explained over time.

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Japan decides to relax restrictions on foreign workers

TOKYO, Feb. 9, 2024—In a policy shift from homogeneity to multi-racism, Japan Feb. 9 adopted a policy of proactively welcoming foreign labor by repealing the current system of locking foreign workers in a particular industry to ‘train and teach’ them special skills for low pays in workplaces suffering labor shortages, the system that workers complain about limited freedom and possible abuse.

The policy change to ‘symbiotic labor’ from the existing ‘techno training’ program that the cabinet ministers meeting today rubber-stamped seeks to secure foreign workers in less restrictive conditions than the current system that effectively exploits foreign labor for low pays in prison-like work environs, resulting in escaping workers and human rights abuses. Employer organization, led by the powerful lobby Nippon Keidanren, has been asking for overhauling the current system over the past decade.

In recent years, other countries, including emerging Asia, have been recruiting skilled and unskilled foreign workers as they ratchet up the global wealth ladder by elevating their socio-economic well-being with digitalization and cheap labor. Taiwan, for one, actively invites Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnamese and other Asian nationalities. Thailand, Indonesia and other relatively wealthy Asian economies are accepting Laotian, Cambodian, Myanmar and other workers.

This is resulting is competition of securing both skilled and unskilled workers across Asia and elsewhere, making the current Japanese train and teach method less attractive even for economically struggling countries – the reason for the necessity of its reform.

In the planned new program, a foreign national who basically has worked for two years in one workplace can change jobs and work locations, on condition that a special work skilled learned during the two years can be used in the new workplace. And those who can demonstrate sufficient Japanese language skills would quality for permanent residency.

Many unanswered questions remain, though, e.g., what kind of work conditions a foreign worker would be exposed during the first two years, including pays, health insurance and other social welfare services, as well as how foreign workers can develop and maintain friendly living conditions with Japanese.

In Warabi City, Saitama, a suburb northwest of Tokyo with the population of 67,100, foreign residents account for 12 percent, many of Kurds. Last year, the city’s general hospital was surrounded by rival Kurd groups over an incident that to date has yet to be known. Riot police mobilized and the Japanese media reported it as ‘a riot,’ sending shudders to local Japanese residents and planting a biased image to them about foreigners. The brief tension that swept through the city clearly was caused by a lack of information and communications between the Japanese and foreign residents. It’s the kind of things that need to be addressed under the new program.

As of 2023, foreign residents in Japan totaled about 3.2 million, or about 2.6 percent of the Japanese population of 125 million, the ratio whose curve has been steepening over the last two decades in an inverted graph relationship with the tumbling overall Japanese population arising from rapid aging.

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